When you are vertical in a horizontal world

Everything is constantly changing and we can either stay still and remain in the same place and watch the world spin around us or move with the changes. People change, places change, not everything can stay the same forever.

Then there are times when you change and the world around you can’t keep up. You evolve beyond your surroundings. You have changed so much that you hardly recognize yourself in an environment that once felt like the only place you ever wanted to be. You realize that YOU need to move on, you are spinning and nothing else is, you are vertical and everything else is horizontal. You see the changes in yourself but your environment does not recognize the changes in you.

You can see how far you have come and the world around you fails to acknowledge that because you are the only thing in your world that has changed. You look flat because your surroundings are flat and nothing three dimensional can be seen there.

There are things in life you can always count on. These are different for everyone and some hold more value than others. Some are meaningful and bring solace and some are monotonous and bring anguish because no matter what they just won’t change. I know that every Sunday my family will have dinner together whether I am there or not, I know that every 4th of July my town will have a race, I know that every time I walk into my parents house it will smell like baked goods, and I know that every year on Valentine’s Day Phil will buy me an entire chocolate cake. These things bring solace and happiness and I would never want them to change no matter how much I change. There are also things I wish would change like the guy who lives two blocks from me and allows his dog to run out into the street and chase me when I run by, like the long lines at a store near the holidays, the traffic jams and mass chaos in town when the students move back into the university each fall, and the inevitable bug bites in the summer. These things cause anguish, frustration, anger, and irritability and they will probably never change. These are the things that cause a person to change. As a result, I won’t run down that part of my street when the dog is out, I shop online often, I don’t drive by the university in the fall, and I try to wear bug spray. These things are still issues but I have evolved beyond the issues. I have found ways to remove myself from these unpleasant situations even though I know they still exist. I have evolved so much and spun so fast that I have landed far away from this frustrating monotony.

You may be spinning faster than the world around you and wondering why nothing is evolving with you. This is stressful but as long as you keep spinning upward one day you will spin so fast that you will spin right out of that place and land in a place that is evolving and everything will be vertical right along with you. You can not question yourself, how far you have come, and how far you can go. Even if you are stuck in a rut or trapped in monotony if you keep spinning as fast as you can and allowing yourself to change you will no longer be the only vertical thing in a horizontal world, you will be in a vertical world.